The 44 accommodations building built by François Noël, constitues an hyphen between the different templates from diversified architectures of the XIXth arrondissement of Paris. The work on the orientations and the play on volumes funds the urban print of the edifice. Compact by nature, the general volume is chiseled by elements as balconies, « retour de voile », folding, reversals. The tigerish composition of the last four flours allows to clear wide terraces which give generous outdoor extensions to the pleased/happy occupants. Located at 19, rue Riquet, the building succeeds its urban insertion with a subtile composition full of strength and expressivity. The building inserts itself in a « dent creuse » taking the spot of a service station, strengthening the street urbanity.
The project develops a real work of urban sewing between a « barre » at R + 12 Avenue de Flandres and on the other side, three plots at R + 7 from the 70’s which the building catches on. With its intermediate template, the building accompanies and does a transition, announces and bounds, spousing the spot geography. By its soft hanging, the emergence of the main part becomes even stronger : an eminent central body aligned on the street, rises up to give lightness to the whole building, a white concrete square guarantees the back into the striated pinion. Some balconies agreement the facades composition as well as they offer views on the city and lights reaching from different spots. The horizontal rhythm of the windows marks a visual and very asserted continuity with its closed neighbors. The very « drawn » project takes its origins in the Modern Movement where François Noël draws his inspiration.
If we turn/ get oriented to the south, at the heart of the « island », the building takes another aspect : here, the verticality is the theme. It expresses itself through a play of strips which launch into the sky. The wall is more divided and digged, it bends over and gets back, in successive repetitive rhythms of the diversified geometrical formed balconies which punctuate the facade. Yellow, grey, white and pink are combined in this joyful and dynamical composition : rhythm, colors, shadows and lights line together in a right balance between massiveness and slenderness, power and subtlety, anchorage and lightness, vertical and horizontal. The architectural details provide the elegance of this very parisian operation, whereas unity and fragmentation complete wonderfully each other in this colorful and vibrant project.
